Yeah, that Johnny K was a boy only his mother could love. Too bad that, as an Immortal, he probably never had a mother. A small-time hustler in 1929, he annoyed the wrong gangster and got whacked. Mac tried to tell him The Way Things Are, but Johnny K went his own way and became an assassin.
Mac and Johnny meet each other in modern Seacouver and Johnny takes it into his mind to whack Mac. Johnny don't play fair, never having had been taught the Rules, so he sets Mac up to die the regular way (shot, blown up, whatever) so's Johnny can then separate Mac's head from his shoulders. This kind of un-nerves Mac, who then decides that Johnny's overwhelming need for secrecy can work against him. Can't have the face of a nameless, faceless assassin posted all over town can we? We can and we do, and it really pisses Johnny off.
Mac consults with Joe who is having some woo pitched at him by old flame Betsy, who just happened to drop by Joe's Bar. Joe is resisting Betsy's advances, but Mac thinks Joe ought to be gettin' some, so he pretty much makes it impossible for Joe to escape. Mac goes to Joe's storage locker to get some equipment to work on Joe's faulty taps, and picks up some diverse things for his own use. Johnny K has Mac trapped inside the loft, and Mac builds a contraption which makes it appear that he's moving around the loft and an easy target for Johnny's gun. Johnny shoots the mannequin through the loft window, killing it for sure, and is surprised when Duncan makes an appearance right there in the parking garage where Johnny has been hiding.
Mac disarms Johnny and kind of humiliates him, saying things like "this is how we do it." Mac whacks Johnny and a really automotive-type Quickening ensues. You wouldn't want to have parked your car there.
Back with Joe and Betsy, it turns out that Joe's reluctance to date Betsy was that they knew each other back in high school when Joe was a football star and they liked to dance together. Now he thinks his lack of legs will turn her off, but it doesn't. Unfortunately, she has to cut her visit to Seacouver short and Joe takes it personally until she finally explains that Betsy is really Sadie Married Lady playing Loosey Lucy, but she has to go home and it's nothing to do with Joe.
Joe goes to the loft and sees the contraption Mac built. He and Mac chat and throw the football around. Male bonding moment.
Questions:
1. It's really way cool seeing all the disguises Johnny uses when he's on an assassination gig. We are rather surprised that Johnny did not ever wear the Disco Duncan Wig. It would have really made the moment. Can we think of any other disguises Johnny could have worn which might have lightened his heavy burden of assassination angst?
2. I can't help but feel there are some parallels between Johnny K and Kenny, though I can't quite express them. Can you?
3. In spite of his seeming nervousness at being targeted through the loft windows, Duncan made a game of entrapping Johnny. Could he not just have sneaked out the back way and into the parking garage and surprised Johnny, without going to all the trouble of setting up a target mannequin on a toy railroad track? Is this yet another example of how Duncan whiles away the long centuries?
4. Betsy is a pretty deceptive woman. She "just happens" to drop into Joe's bar and "just happens" not to mention that she's married with children. Are there any parallels in the Joe/Betsy and Duncan/Johnny tales? Is it possible that Betsy was in town to hire Johnny for a Big Job or would that have been just a little too convenient? Maybe she was Johnny's Watcher. Wouldn't THAT have been an interesting happenstance?
5. Do you suppose Duncan would have traded one of the rocks off his coffee table for Joe's choo-choo train?